New software, new fees

“These are through a third-party vendor. These are not the city’s fees, so this is what they charge and we are essentially passing that along to the consumer,” Prather said.

Two of those fees relate to that. One allows the city to charge a $2.25 fee for payments made via e-check and the other 99 cent fee and a 2.99% charge for payments made with a debit or credit card.

“We have been directed by the City Council to recoup the costs for services and that is what we are trying to do here,” Prather said.

According to Prather, the city will begin charging a refundable $1,900 fee to encourage lawns and landscaping on new single-family homes. City codes don’t allow the laying of new sod during the dryest parts of the summer, between May and September. Property owners would pay the fee and the city would refund it once the lawns are completed.

“During that time period when they cannot install sod, they give us the $1,900 and once the sod is installed, we’ll go out and inspect and they will get their $1,900 back,” Prather said. “This helps ensure that residents get their landscaping installed in accordance with city codes. It’s a mechanism to get that done.”

Multi-family and commercial/ industrial projects will pay the fee based on the estimated cost of installing the landscaping.

City Councilor Clint Blackhurst said his concern is double-charging homeowners who purchase a recently completed home and pay to install their own lawns. While the contractor who built the home likely paid the fee, Blackhurst said he’d like to find a way for the homeowner to get the refund.

“If a contract doesn’t put the lawn in and the homeowner has to put the lawn in, that $1,900 just gets added to the price of the home,” Blackhurst said. “Can the homeowner come to us and can we rebate the money to them? I’d like to see us think about that. Otherwise, they are paying it twice. It might not be happening often, but I think we should think about a process for that.”

Scott Olsen, the acting Director of Utilities, requested an increase for three fees. One would increase the cost of Erosion and Sediment Control, another would create a Water Meter Inspection fee for new developments and the last would charge developers the actual cost of the meters.

“This is just based on the actual cost we pay for the meters,” Olsen said.

The fee for a half-inch meter would go from $280.82 to $324.16 while the cost for the largest meter, a six-inch meter, would increase from $4,426.50 to $4,481.65.

Olsen noted the price for one size of meter, a one-inch meter, would actually drop, from $507.70 to $474.65.

The city would also charge $50 for a water meter inspection, based on the amount of time an inspector needs to spend on the job. Olsen said the city would also implement a $100 fee charged if a water meter needs to be reinspected.

“Several times during the construction process, say for a singlefamily home, we have to return to the site to make sure there is no damage to the water meter pit or the water meter itself,” Olsen said. “This fee can be avoided by the homebuilder or contractor by just being more careful around the pit and using hand shovels to make